Gobsmacked by UK response

[Aspoonfullofjam]

Stay at home for one week if you’ve a cold (even though all evidence is that incubation is two weeks)

People over 70 don’t go on cruises.

WHAT!!!

134 new cases in a day and no action. 13 EU countries have closed all schools, another 11 partial closures but apparently no action needed in Uk.

Jesus.

And who are the science experts? Is it Dominic Cummings? He must have a degree in every subject!

Math thanks for answering. It is easier for older students to go online and it makes sense.

Are nurseries in Ireland closed too?
I’m wondering if there are fewer two parent working families, what will they do if it lasts for four months and longer? Have they alternative CC.

Also wrt closing borders I wonder about NI border

Questions I know, interested in the difference.

T @StillDisappointed yes it was in the budget- sick pay for those in isolation.

Durham uni has switched to online lectures. Newcastle hasn’t.

Italy's Serie A, Spain's La Liga, France's Ligue 1, the Dutch Eredivise and the Danish top league all suspended based on their government advice. Yet up until 9.30pm the Premier League were saying they were planning to carry on as normal due to UK government advice that there was no need to suspend the league. Literally 15 minutes later they had to retract that after the Arsenal manager and a Chelsea player tested positive for Coronavirus.

The government will not take any action until a huge portion of us have been affected by the illness. Their "herd immunity" strategy flies in the face of international consensus and is a cold-blooded psychopathic attempt to "get coronavirus done" and minimise the duration of the outbreak, even if it means hundreds of thousands more people die.

I asked a similar question last night but can't see an answer to it.

With the news that testing will now only happen in hospitals, how do we know when we're reaching the peak?

If were not testing, how do we know how widespread the virus is?

Exactly! They estimated 10,000 of us have it. How????

If were not testing, how do we know how widespread the virus is?

I asked too! Especially since supporters were all like "unlike those other stupid foreign countries with their inferior science, we are going to win big by getting herd immunity" I wanted to know how we would know if we achieve enough infection in the population without testing.

Loppy10 YOU SAID IT!!!!

Yes. Cold-blooded psychopathic attempt to get Coronavirus done.

You are a genius. This is what it is. And it's the same move as a man who celebrates his engagement and new child on the way in total oblivion of the pain of his former family. As if by acting with complete assurance of his own amiable entitlement, that makes it all fine.

Basically whatever the new, ultimately selfish action is, it is pushed through by extraordinary denial of the reality and severity of the collateral damage.

Because it's not him getting damaged.

I'm really surprised that on MN of all places, with our frequent clear understanding of this kind of behaviour in abusive partners, 'Bojo' is feted with a jaunty nickname and seems to have unlimited credit in terms of our willing suspension of disbelief.

What he is saying at the moment is, to use his own phrase, an inverted pyramid of piffle.

Neither France nor Spain nor Italy closed down at the stage the UK is at with the virus. They are all further along the trajectory. Did they all get it wrong or aim to kill off their populations too

Italy’s lockdown can’t even be compared to China’s

Italians are still going out and going to work, good shopping etc

Not fully locked down at all

In China the approach was more authoritive - streets were literally blocked off which I expect won’t ever happen here

I did try to think of an name of a government dept that would abbreviated to clitoris

Chazs that's the whole point - they didn't close down earlier because didn't realise how bad it would get. We can see what's happening to them and possibly avoid that by closing down earlier.

Ukraine have one case and have closed down. In an attempt not to get more!

Why do we have to get it? If closing down as in Wuhan can slow and stop it?

If we all sit at home as of today, that's our best chance of not getting it, it seems.

Partly the prime minster is reflecting the mood of the nation.

I think because there was so may nay sayers and on here that they felt they couldn’t put in any extreme social measures yet!

In the news: Italian chief medical officer dead from it, front page daily mail.

Sunshine I have a friend from Italy. It's changed very rapidly there - on Tuesday you could go to shops from 6am to 6pm. Now they're closing more down. Only emergency shopping - you have to show your receipt to the carabinieri to show it was an essential outing. You have to have papers which are checked. Etc.

@Snotalot Boris is publishing a handy aide-memoir to his current guidance:

Continue Limited Isolations, Travel Overseas Restricted In Schools

If were not testing, how do we know how widespread the virus is?

We know by the death rates and those admitted to hospital with serious symptoms. These figures are more reliable anyway.

The 'infected' figures are nonsense already - the UK probably has more cases than Germany who have fewer deaths it's just they've counted more from wider testing. Equally the cases in Italy have clearly been massively undercounted for the death rate they apparently have.

And the stuff about when a young person dies it will be . They will, just at a lesser rate. Young people die every day from a variety of things, and Cironavirus is a new one.

I might die from it, but stressing and waiting for the government to achieve the impossible and reduce that risk to zero doesn't help anyone. If you want to reduce your risk to zero then stay in, deregister your children and homeschool until there is a vaccine. You don't need the government to force you to do this.

If we close too soon then the risk is that people will start to react against the restrictions right at the time when you want maximum social distancing.

We can’t stop the spread of this virus, it will come back next year this is about managing the first wave (my understanding is Spanish Flu had multiple waves).

There is concern that there will be a second spike in China when restrictions are relaxed and people in the locked down are struggling.

Eventually 80% of us may get it but the idea is not to get it all at once. We shouldn't be panicking and I'm not going on holiday to northern Italy soon but I think it's OK to keep schools open for another week or two. We need to protect the oldies and those who look after them. If someone in my family had some major health issue then I would be panicking.
The main thing is good hygiene and forget the stupid masks. Only wear one if you have it.

Why would we ignore advice? I wouldn’t. Shows what the uk gov thinks of it’s citizens.

We know by the death rates and those admitted to hospital with serious symptoms. These figures are more reliable anyway.

So we're going to implement more stringent measures when the death rates / serious cases go up? I may be wrong, and I hope I am but I was under the impression that such measures wouldn't be helpful at this point as the virus would already be too widespread?

lilgreen
They are expecting the peak in May/June can you afford to lock down from now until end of June?

I have no idea water. The question was 'how do we know how widespread the virus is' and I answered it.

Unless you quarantine yourself until there's a vaccine (12 months +?) there's an inevitability about getting it. Shutting schools and sending everyone home won't stop you getting it at some stage. It's a balancing act now to try to get us all through it in a fairly steady way rather than a big peak that overwhelms services, but it'll be 6 months before we are through this and we can't batten down the hatches effectively for that length of time.

Those arguing for closing schools - remember how many NHS staff rely on school having their kids when they're at work. Also think of the vulnerable children for whom school is their only guarantee of getting a decent meal every day.

I don't like Boris Johnson at all, but I can see why they've taken the approach they have.

There are things that are more urgent and important than others. Many large sports and cultural events could wait, banning them would not cause much harm - apart from making holes to big bosses' pockets perhaps - may be that is the real reason they are allowed to continue, using science as a pretence.